Regulator: Amazon UK's "release date" delivery promise not misleading

Via Shutterstock

British advertising regulators have dismissed a complaint against Amazon UK, which advertises release-day delivery for video games, but occasionally—as forum rage attests—falls short.

The Advertising Standards Authority said that Amazon's couriers usually made it on time, and that fine print concerning the possibility of delays and offering shipping refunds meant that the promise wasn't misleading.

"Although the complainant had not received the game on the release date, we noted that very few other customers had requested a refund due to the game arriving after that date," the group wrote in its adjudication. "Because the complainant had been refunded the cost of delivery in accordance with Amazon's RDD policy, and because the vast majority of RDD orders had been fulfilled, we concluded that the claim "Want to receive this the day it comes out?" was not misleading."

ASA Adjudication on Amazon EU Sarl

• [Fang Xianfu]

  I can’t help feeling like there’s going to be some kind of “small print claims victory over little guy!” sentiment here, but that’s not really what happened.

  Amazon only says you’ll get your item on release day when a) you’re signed in b) you have a default delivery address set and c) there is a shipping method available that will reach your delivery address in time.

  In this case, the customer’s order was dispatched the day before delivery using a 24-hour courier service, but because of problems on the courier’s end, the package wasn’t delivered. It’s not specified what the problems were but you can imagine the sort of thing – flat tyre, traffic accident, incompetence. These things happen sometimes.

  Because the delivery didn’t do what they’d said it would do when they sold it, Amazon refunded the customer’s money – that’s their policy in these cases. In fact in this case it’s the small print that gives you your money back, so that’s nice. This is the same way anything else works – “you said this hammer would last 30 years!” ‘sorry sir, here’s your money back’.

  What exactly are Amazon supposed to do differently? They only say you’ll get it by release date if their couriers say they can do it, and if something does go wrong after the package leaves the warehouse, they refund the delivery charges. If they wanted to be assholes they could probably have small-print that says “all delivery dates are tentative, delays happen” and keep the delivery money.

• [beemoh]

  “forum rage”

  Sorry, you mis-spelled “daring to say anything critical, at all”

  (Although I do agree that this specific case is overdoing it a bit)

• [C W]

  Gamers make the worst customers, yeesh.

  • [Donald Petersen]

    They can be pretty awful customers, but they also have to put up with a certain amount of customer-contempt.  Personally, Amazon (US version) has never missed a release-day delivery for me, although the package usually shows up in the late afternoon, which would kinda defeat the purpose if I actually cared about being the first on my block to play, but I don’t, so that’s okay.

    But I don’t do release-day game purchases anymore.  It worked great for me for all of Bungie’s Halo titles, which were always put through a rigorous testing and bug-squashing process long before release.  But after the enormous pain in the ass that was Fallout: New Vegas, which was buggy near to the point of unplayability for weeks after release, I learned that some game companies have no problem using their paying customers as unpaid beta testers, assuming that anyone who wants to actually play an unbroken version of the game will have to wait a while for a patch to be released, while those few who for whatever reason have no internet access are shit out of luck, being the proud possessors of shiny $60 drink coasters.

    So I waited a month before picking up Skyrim, and was glad I did.  My opinion of Bioware was high enough that I’d intended to pre-order Mass Effect 3, and due to one thing or another, I forgot all about it until several days after release.  I read a few critics’ reviews and was all excited to order.  But then I read the actual players’ reviews, and my enthusiasm was dampened. I still haven’t bought it yet, since I’m exactly the sort of person who plays modern video games for the story factor, and all the top-quality gameplay in the world isn’t going to make up for bad or inconsistent and unsupportable writing.

    So, as much as I’m really looking forward to Bioshock: Infinite, even though Irrational Games/2K has so far given me no reason to doubt their quality and professionalism, I will be the last on my block to buy.  I’ll happily wait a month or more to make sure a game is actually finished and worthwhile before I give anyone my money anymore.

• [Camp Freddie]

  Amazon often overcompensate for delivery times and deliver games the day before release. I often get deliveries a day before their estimate, though I’ve had occasional delays.
  Amazon clearly make good faith efforts to deliver on release dates, so it’s not misleading. It’s certainly no different to  their estimated delivery times for any other delivery method. Sometimes the mail gets held up.
  I guess there’s a fine line where  ’occasional delays’ turns into underestimating delivery times in bad faith to generate more orders. I think Amazon are (currently) on the right side of that line in the UK.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Since they’ve opened up to carriers other than UPS here in the US, I’ve gotten about a quarter of my two-day deliveries in one day.

• [anharmyenone]

  If it were a transplant organ, that would be one thing…